Just gloating, but I spent the first 35 years of my life in Redondo Beach, California, house on a 50x110 foot lot, tiny little lawn. Have been in Wyoming for the last 40 years of my life, live on 5 acres, have a well at 35 feet down and soak the hell out of my 13,000 sq foot lawn anytime I want, 1/2 HP pump gives me 12 gallons a minute and a normal, all day sprinkling, gives me a bit over TWO TONS of water on the lawn per hour....Ahhhhhh.

And those fleeing spread the disease.

I've lived in California a number of times, starting in the late 1940s, and noticed how much less sane the state had become with each return. They killed much of their agricultural production, and resisted building a system to retain much of the rainfall and snow pack they get each year. As a result, instead of sensible use of their water resources, they get alternating destructive floods and wildfires brought on by drought.

Now that I've retired to Oklahoma, I marvel at the difference. The Okies learned from the dust bowl days, and have built a very efficient water management system of numerous reservoirs and canals to balance the levels between them. Even after five years of extreme drought the state remained productive, with few water use restrictions. In ten years, the only thing I've had to do is to restrict watering my lawn to every other day.

What do you expect from a state that regulates cow farts?

It's only a matter of time before the splitting of California into smaller states takes place. I imagine the folks of northern California are really animated to create the State of Jefferson with this law.

When my local water server here in CA doubled their service fee while increasing charges for water use, I called and pointed out that if they kept doing this, I would eventually be using no water and giving them every asset that I had for the privilege. I was assured that these increases were “temporary”. Since then, my service charge has doubled again, as have penalty levels for water use above certain thresholds. Service charges, which basically are efforts to fund massive pension obligations, will soon be greater than the water use charge. Venezuela is on its way. I must be on my way out.

WE should take a clue from Venezuela to see where California is heading. Instead of an Atlas Shrugged movie, the producers should consider a weekly series on life in Venezuela to see the great things Socialism can bring you.

Let's not forget those communities where you must also maintain a green healthy lawn. These people may get "fined" either way.

What are California's laws regarding the collection of rain/snow water? This is a contentious issue in many states and I'll bet California is in the lead of being onerous here to.

I live in rural Nevada. We need a border wall on our western state line.

on Maui, you can buy a home, but you cannot live in it without a water permit...no permit...no water....

Arizona is restrictive in its water rates, some people have tiny lawns but most have either crushed granite or crushed volcanic cinders for landscaping. Now the local water company got permission from the State Board to raise its rates. It won't be as severe as California. When I received the latest bill I went to check my plant irrigation system for leaks. Yes, I found some. The homeowner in Az must be vigilant in water usage.

There's more to this than California imposing iron rations on the use of water. This is the inevitable result of settling a bunch of people on land that had no water, and bringing water in, free of charge, with tax support.

If water projects were private, none of this would have happened. California's population would never have outgrown the land's ability to support it. But lack of imagination has meant that water was a public utility since ancient Rome with its famous aqueducts, and possibly more ancient than that.

I've looked at Rand's essays. I didn't find the one on the property status of water--unless I missed something.

I can proudly say that, for the first time in my life, I now get my water from a completely private source. I have an Artesian well in my front yard. Not only is this the best water apart from a mountain spring or stream, but it depends solely on local rainfall, which has always been plentiful. I manage the water, and I control its quality. Nobody tells me how much or how little water I must use, because I do not draw from a common source. (And I even added a second source: a rain barrel.)

Nobody thinks in terms of light (that is, electricity), gas or water subject to private delivery and management. We all know that was the rule in Atlantis. (Dick McNamara became the prime LGW distribution provider; John Galt was, of course, the prime electrical generation provider.)

California is only the first polity to pay the price, in the form of a tragedy of the commons, for providing government water with no thought for the future. The Republic of Israel at least have done some planning, but are now about to embark on desalination to supplement their water. Water will be a casus belli soon.

Two years ago I left California after spending the previous 40 years there. One of my specific reasons (apart from general disgust with the politics and the cost of living) was that if the drought continued, I'd be looking at water rationing, or water bills as high as my mortgage payment, or both. Looks like I nailed that call.

Yeah, a boatload will come to Arizona and screw things up here. Its already happening. This used to be a reliably solid red state.

52.5 gallons per capita. My family uses slightly more than that on occasion. What would they do to people who go over?